Berkeley’s music manuscripts acquired by the British Library

Petroc Trelawny recalls the acquisition of Berkeley’s music manuscripts by the British Library, and the launch of the Resonus ‘Chamber Works’ album by the Berkeley Ensemble.

To celebrate the British Library’s acquisition of Lennox Berkeley’s music manuscripts and to launch the Berkeley Ensemble’s new chamber music CD the Society held its annual study day in the BL’s Foyle Room on 16 April 2015, by kind permission of Dr Nicolas Bell, Head of Music Collections.¹

Adam Pounds, new Chairman, and Petroc Trelawny, new President, at the Berkeley Study Day, British Library, 16 April, 2015

The programme started with the Annual General Meeting, at which Petroc stepped down as Chairman to take up his new role as President. On the recommendation of the Committee he was replaced by the composer, conductor and arranger Adam Pounds, a former student of Berkeley and a long-serving member of the Committee.

After a viewing of some of the Berkeley manuscripts in the BL’s new collection, Petroc chaired an interesting discussion between the composer Michael Berkeley, Hugh Cobbe (formerly Head of British Collections, BL), Nicolas Bell, and composer Paul Cott, horn player with the Berkeley Ensemble.

Hugh recalled his first official approaches to the family about the Berkeley scores in 1990, which had resulted in the acquisition of the autograph scores of the Four Poems of St. Teresa of Avila and the Guitar Concerto. Berkeley’s music, Hugh said, was as clear, unassuming and urbane as the man himself. Nicolas, his successor at the BL, spoke of his pride in having acquired the entire collection for the Library in 2015. And he and Michael stressed the importance of lodging significant archives in the national collection, both for their own safekeeping in perpetuity and for the comprehensive access which this offered. Nicolas memorably described his role as a keeper of manuscripts to that of a priest with ‘cure of souls’. Paul Cott spoke of his feelings on handling the Berkeley manuscripts at the BL when selecting works for the new CD. It had been exciting to see exactly what Berkeley had written, in his own hand. The ensemble’s criteria had been quality rather than rarity, and what had surprised them was the sheer quantity of good music hidden away.

Composers Richard Stoker, Michael Berkeley and John McLeod, all former students of Lennox Berkeley, at the Berkeley Study Day, BL, 16 April 2015 (Photo John McLeod)

One of the autograph scores on temporary display in the Foyle Room was part of an orchestral suite which Berkeley compiled from his music for the film Out of Chaos, Jill Craigie’s wartime documentary about the Official British War Artists. And next on the programme was a rare screening of the film itself (from a print in the British Film Institute). Tony Scotland’s introduction to the film forms part of his account of Lennox’s five film scores elsewhere in this edition of the Journal.

Members were then offered a guided tour of the Sir John Ritblat ‘Treasures of the British Library Gallery’, with star attractions ranging from Magna Carta to Handel’s autograph score of Messiah. And the evening ended with a lively concert given by the Berkeley Ensemble (reviewed by Richard Stoker).